straightforwardly | 160 | Child of Light, the first 7 episodes of Arang & the Magistrate, & a few bits of miscellanea

► Before I get into all my lengthy rambling, have a link to a drawing of some pretty foxes I found on twitter. Foxes! ♥

► Gaming update: I beat Child of Light! I actually started this one two years ago, and then wandered off at some point during chapter… five, I think? Shortly after recruiting Norah, if I remember correctly. It’s very possible that that’s not right—I remembered pretty much nothing about this game when I started playing it again, and even now, most of the beginning of the game is just a large blank in my memory.

Usually I’d just restart the game when that happens (...which is probably why I’ve never actually finished so many of the beloved games of my childhood), but in this case, I didn’t really care? Mostly because I was never invested in the story in the first place. My primary memories of this game were of the Terrible Poetry (it’s really very bad), the beautiful art and fantastic soundtrack, a vague idea of how the battle system worked, and my very much not caring about what was going on, story-wise.

That last point actually changed when I got close to the end of the game! Though it took a while for that to happen.

Usually in games where you can pick who you fight with, I tend to go with my favorites, but in this one, I pretty much always went with Aurora + either Finn and Robert, and the latter two definitely weren’t my favorites. I actually really disliked Robert (the “trying to win the heart of a girl I’ve never talked to” plotline is never going to work for me), but he also had my favorite skill-tree in the game. Finn I just didn’t care about, but, again, he was pretty good for wreaking magical damage. Though, all of the characters were useful, really. For random encounters I mostly relied on the above three, but for boss battles, I usually ended up using each character at least once for something. Their different skill-sets really are pretty well balanced.

But back to the story. I had A Lot of Feelings about how the stepsisters were handled. Mainly—I got quite attached to Aurora’s relationships with them (especially Norah—I got surprisingly attached to her), and wasn’t really pleased with how they were handled. Her pleas to Cordelia before that boss battle were so heartfelt—but then she didn’t seem to really feel much at all when Cordelia actually died. And Norah! I really thought that they were gearing up to a redemption arc there, especially since one of the last things Norah said to her before it was revealed that she’d betrayed her was some fairly sincere-sounding advice. But nope—we just got Aurora being upset about her being a traitor, and then Norah died. And now I really want fix-it fic for that relationship.

(It doesn’t help that pre-the traitor reveal, I was actually having a lot of feelings about the fact that Norah’s her older sister, and her skillset is basically revolving around defense/protection, which is to say, defense/protection of her little sister, and ahhhh. It was the first thing that really prompted a reaction from me in this game, so I probably latched onto it pretty hard—even now, I’m not convinced that Norah really hated her in the end, though I do think she definitely tried to convince herself that she hated her.)

I also had some feelings about Rubella and Tristis’ relationship—mostly, because of a single line after the latter is recruited, when he says that she’s the only one who ever laughed at his jokes. Suddenly, Feelings.

I also kind of shipped Aurora/Gen! Though only in a post-canon, when Gen’s grown up sense. They’re about the same age, as far as I can tell (despite them meeting after Aurora Randomly Grew Up, which… I’m still not sure what to make of that? I liked her adult design a lot, and I think her being an adult worked with the ending, but I also have no idea why she suddenly grew up, so. Maybe it’s something I missed from the beginning parts I’ve forgotten), and I loved the way they bonded over losing their parents. Plus, Gen’s a cutie, and I can see her being pretty gorgeous once she grows up. It’d be a very pretty pairing.

Óengus also intrigued me—it’s weird how the most interesting party members all came at the end. His relationship with his brother...ugh, feelings. Plus, I’m intrigued by his character design/species.

I did find the ending of the game pretty satisfying, despite my problems with how the stepsister thing was handled. I do feel sorry for Aurora, losing her father like that, but I loved the part where she returned to Austria, and rescued her father’s people from the flood by leading them into Lemuria with her. I can’t quite explain why that worked so well for me as an ending, but it really did.

► I’ve also been watching Arang and the Magistrate. I actually started it about a month ago, but took a break after the fourth episode for no reason in particular, then started it up again earlier this week. Right now, I just finished episode seven, and I’m really enjoying it! The episodes are flying by, which is saying something, considering how long kdrama episodes always are.

I’m actually shipping Arang/Eun-oh—it’s the rare kdrama couple that actually works for me. I’m still trying to put my finger on why they work so well for me. It’s just… even as they’re bickering/being not-so-nice to one another, I can see an undercurrent of affection (or potential affection, in the earlier episodes) for each other? Plus, while he’s a bit of a jerk, he’s 1) aware of it (what was it that he said—“I might be brave, but I’m not warmhearted”?), and 2) I think he’s actually nicer than he seems to think he is.

Also, huddling for warmth. *_* Okay, it failed because Arang is really Not Quite Human at the moment, but I still appreciated the drama going there.

I’m really looking forward to seeing their relationship evolve—there’s really no risk of second lead syndrome here. (Especially since, you know, the second lead’s already murdered her at least once. Sorry, dude, you might have an abusive relationship with Eun-oh’s mom, and I do have a small amount of sympathy for you, but not enough to override the fact that you’ve been murdering women for her.)

Speaking of which, the possibility of the Evil Woman being Eun-oh’s missing mom only occurred to me about sixty seconds before that reveal happened, so.

Arang is the greatest; I love how much spirit she has. Her yelling at the Jade Emperor and calling him an old man (even after she actually met him & saw that he wasn’t old at all) never fails to delight me. I’m also really fond of how both she and Eun-oh talk about Lee Sol-im like she’s a different person from Arang? Because, really, she kind of is—Arang might be her ghost, but they had drastically different memories/life experiences to shape them. I was a little disappointed when Arang became a human again, mostly because I was really looking forward to Eun-oh having to deal with her ghostly chill when/if they ever kiss, buuuuuttt I’m completely sold on it now, if only because her “can’t die” thing has so much promise. I can’t wait to see Dol-sue’s reaction to her surviving that fall.

Speaking of Dol-sue… is it me, or is his relationship with Eun-oh kind of shippy? That is to say, I don’t actually ship it, but the way he acts around Eun-oh plus his jealousy of Arang kind of makes me feel like his feelings for Eun-oh aren’t, uh, entirely platonic. (There was also that whole “you’re like a brother and [something I forgot] and lover to me” thing, too…) That’s probably the biggest reason why I’m not feeling so jazzed about the inklings of a him/the fake shaman girl romance, actually—I can’t actually see him into a woman. (I did like Arang’s interactions with the fake shaman girl, though, and can’t wait to see her meet Arang as a living person.)

I'm also crushing hard on the reaper guy. Seriously. I’m kind of full of intense regret that he’s only a side character—I really want a drama with that actor + the same character concept/design, except with him as a lead, because he is smoking. Whhhyyyy can’t I see him make out with someone. Why.

I am idly shipping him/Arang, partially because of what I said above, but mostly because he sometimes gives her these looks, and while I know I’m probably misinterpreting them, I can’t help but read them as him having some sort of feelings for her (even if they’re not romantic). (...Actually, if I’m being honest with myself, it’s probably going to either be 1) in my imagination or 2) just being because he’s projecting his feelings about his sister onto her. Ohn that note, I really am curious about what’s going on with his sister.)

Finally...the three stooges (idk what their names actually are) were hilarious in this last episode. “I didn’t push him!” “Yes, good, keep saying that!”

I might actually request this one for Yuletide, though of course that depends on where the series goes from here. I threw in the noms just in case (and am crossing my fingers that I don’t fall desperately in love with another character in the next 13 episodes). This does mean that I’ll need to pick up the pace with my watching, but that shouldn’t be a problem—I’m pretty hooked.

► Finally, some exciting news: apparently, the publisher of Stardew Valley is now working on a magic school RPG! Yesssss. This looks 100% like my sort of thing.

(A bit more information here.)